High school graduations are right around the corner, and for tens of thousands of New York students, that often means leaving the area for a new opportunity.

But one senior in the Southern Tier is looking to take on a unique opportunity, and he’s doing it while he’s still in school.

Nathan Hanzalik, 18, is running for the school board.

"I think it's very important that the younger generation gets involved as a lot of people say, there’s a new thing that they say, 'well, we need younger to get involved' and now's the time, I think, to do it,” said Hanzalik, a Union-Endicott School Board candidate.

What You Need To Know

  • At an early age, Nathan Hanzalik founded his own lawn mowing business with his grandfather, which soon expanded into landscaping and sealcoating work

  • This high school senior is hoping his campaign will also raise awareness of how important local elections can be

  • The Union-Endicott school board vote takes place on May 21

Hanzalik has been looking to the future for as long as he can remember.

At an early age, he founded his own lawn mowing business with his grandfather, which soon expanded into landscaping and sealcoating work.

This came while taking college-level business courses at Union-Endicott High School in the Southern Tier, a district that he hopes to help grow.

“I just want to get back to my school district that I went to for the past 12 years and improve and work together and we can accomplish a lot with it,” said Hanzalik.

As you can imagine, his friends are encouraged by his hard work.

"A lot of us in our, in our grade, even in our whole high school, nobody, no student have really taken an action like this. So it's encouraging to see him going out there for all of us. He's representing all of us. And we're here to back him up for it," said senior Drew Karedes.

"It's super encouraging because there's no one else that has really done this before in our class. We went through a lot in high school with COVID and just different things, so it's really exciting to see Nate doing something like this," said senior Adriana Fontana.

Local teachers believe Nate’s hard work, win or lose, is a positive sign for the next generation.

"I think that this is a very good indication that young people need to step up to the plate and start doing more things, not just with the school boards, with local community service, government things. Actually, just getting out to vote in the election is of huge importance," said Jim Tokos, a teacher at Maine Memorial Elementary.

This high school senior is hoping his campaign will also raise awareness of how important local elections can be.

"It's important for us to think about the school board and to improve and make sure that things are doing right, because we want to be a place that we can come back and raise a family,” said Hanzalik.

The Union-Endicott school board vote takes place on May 21.

Dick Testa and Maria Fronek are also running for the open seat.